Hi all,
I have been reviewing “Average admitted student GPA” data on college sites and also on Naviance scattergrams for my D25’s HS. Wondering if anyone has insight into whether these data points generally represent GPAs at the time of application? Or do the data points represent students’ GPAs after final senior grades are posted? There could be be a significant difference in D25’s cumulative GPA at the end of senior year vs what she had at the end of junior year. She’s taking nearly all APs this year and our weighting provides an extra full point per AP. If she does well this year, the cumulative GPA change could be nearly a quarter point. (Also, just a side note, so annoying that colleges post weighted GPA averages when all high schools weight differently and these particular schools do not recalculate with a standardized scale.)
Our HS’s Naviance shows final graduating GPA, not the 6 semester GPA which many/most students use for college apps. Have your kid ask their counselor what is in Naviance.
This also goes for what’s on each school’s common data set, and is only helpful if you know exactly how a college calculated this GPA…for example, core courses only? Weighted or unweighted? Right off each student’s transcript, regardless weighted or not? Etc. Etc.
Bottom line: average GPA as reported by schools is often not helpful.
Thanks! This is in line with what I expected and I’ll have her add this to her list of questions to ask her counselor. Her grade trend has been very good (3 B+s 9th grade, 2 B+s 10th, 1 B+ 11th), and I’m hoping senior year is icing on the cake. It helps she’s taking a lot of classes she loves.
